ZAGREB, September 20, 2020 - A total of 197 new cases of the coronavirus infection have been registered in the past 24 hours, four patients have died and the number of active cases now stands at 2,138, the national COVID-19 reponse team said on Sunday.

Of the total number of patients 281 are receiving hospital treatment, including 21 who are on ventilators.

Since February 25, when the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the country, 14,922 people have contracted the disease, of whom 248 have died while 12,536 have recovered, including 183 in the last 24 hours.

Currently 9,475 people are self-isolating.

A total of 258,864 people have been tested for the virus to date, including 4,384 in the last 24 hours.

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September 20, 2020 - Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) has launched a  new application Report it! campaign to create awareness and encourage everyone to get involved in documenting and reporting the many violations of journalists and media workers' rights across Europe.

Such violations, abuses, and aggressions have become so common that they are almost accepted as “normal” and that is wrong, reports the Croatian Journalists' Union. Through this campaign, the MFRR insists that such behavior should not be normalized or accepted as the price of journalistic work. Threats and violations of the rights of media workers are wrong and should not be tolerated. Instead, they should be reported.

The Media Freedom Mapping platform is a place to report every threat, including everything from physical attacks requiring hospital treatment, arrests, and detention, malicious legal actions, harassment and defamation campaigns, to attempted censorship, banning journalists from reporting or passing laws restricting media freedom.

All these violations need to be reported: All you need is an internet connection. By entering data, the MFRD team can offer direct support to affected media workers. It will also help us understand the threats to press and media freedom more clearly in Europe.

How to report it?

All you need to do is go to the website and fill out the form.

Since the beginning of 2020, the Mapping Media Freedom platform has received 241 reports from 30 countries, including attempts by Greek police to prevent journalists from talking to refugees and asylum seekers after the Moria campfire, attacks on journalists during anti-government protests in Sofia, denial of broadcasting licenses to independent media, such as Klubrádió in Hungary, or the online misogynistic harassment of female journalists in countries such as the United Kingdom, North Macedonia, and Belgium.

Each application ensures that journalists and media workers do not have to suffer in silence. To effectively support journalists across Europe, we need everyone’s help to ensure that every offense is reported to Mapping Media Freedom.

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September 20, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as Polish airline LOT will operate to four Croatian airports in October.

Croatian Aviation reports that the Polish airline LOT announced its flight schedule for October, in which, among other things, it confirmed traffic on four international routes to Croatia.

In October, LOT will operate to four airports in Croatia: Zagreb, Zadar, Split, and Dubrovnik. Numerous seasonal lines that were in operation this season will stop operating by the end of September, and most lines have already finished operating (such as the new Warsaw-Rijeka line).

The Warsaw-Zagreb route will also be in operation in October, but the company has canceled certain departures (October 5, 6, 12, 14, 19, 20, and 21), so on average, LOT will fly on this line five times a week. E170 and E190 aircraft have been announced on the route.

The Warsaw-Zadar line will operate until the end of the summer flight schedule, on October 24, once a week, on Saturdays. E190 aircraft have been announced on the route.

The Warsaw-Split line will be in operation until October 18, also once a week, every Sunday. This is the only route to Croatia on which LOT uses larger capacity aircraft, B737-800.

The Warsaw-Dubrovnik line will operate 3 times a week in the first week of October (Monday, Thursday, Saturday), and then until October 24, two flights a week are available, on Mondays and Saturdays.

It is to be expected that in this year's winter flight schedule, LOT will operate only on one line to Croatia, between Warsaw and Zagreb.

Recall, we announced earlier this week that in October this year, Croatia Airlines will continue to connect Croatia with the most important European capitals and transport hubs, and air connections within Croatia will continue to be provided to passengers on domestic scheduled flights. 

During October, the national airline's aircraft will directly connect Croatia with 15 international destinations (Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, London Heathrow, Lyon, Munich, Paris, Rome, Sarajevo, Skopje, and Zurich). Passengers from these traffic hubs are provided with favorable opportunities for connecting flights worldwide, especially on the flights of Croatia Airlines partners from the Star Alliance.

In international regular traffic, Zagreb will be directly connected to 12 European destinations; from Split, it will fly to 10 European capitals, from Dubrovnik to two international destinations. From Rijeka, it will continue to fly to Munich.

In domestic scheduled traffic, Croatia Airlines planes will connect Zagreb with five Croatian airports (Split, Dubrovnik, Zadar, Pula, and Bol on the island of Brac), and flights on the Osijek - Split and Osijek - Dubrovnik routes will continue.

During the peak of the tourist season, the company's planes directly connected Zagreb with 14, Split with 11, and Dubrovnik with 7 international destinations.

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September 20, 2020 - The Vis Solar Power Plant is not only the first on a Croatian island, but it is currently the largest solar power plant in Croatia. 

Slobodna Dalmacija reports that back in 2010, the idea of ​​building a solar power plant on the southern hills of Vis seemed like an impossible mission. Ten years later, it has become a reality that has brought sustainable energy to Vis, the most remote central Dalmatian island.

The new surplus power plant of 3.5 MW, with an annual planned production of about five million kWh of electricity, is the largest solar power plant in Croatia - and it is first on a Croatian island. For every inhabitant of the island, especially those tied to the mainland for services, this investment is more than a relief.

Apart from Vis, the inhabitants of Hvar, but also Zagora, from the peripheral ring of the three 'V's' of Split-Dalmatia County, will also be as lucky. This group also includes Vrlika and the Vrgorac area, which led the announced energy investments with specific energy plans. With them are the planned projects in Sestanovac, Lecevica, and those from the area of Zadvarje, Kastela, Imotski, and in the future, other central Dalmatian islands, too.

As a reminder, since the end of last week, Vis has been receiving electricity for 1,600 households from a modern power plant, which will show its importance, especially during periods of the tourist season, when there are standard periods of higher consumption. With its electricity and drinking water sources, this island becomes energetically self-sustainable. Paraphrased, it is a small step for humanity, but extremely big for both the people of Vis and Croatia.

"The solar power plant on Vis, an investment worth one million kuna, built on a land area of ​​5.5 hectares, is the first of seven HEP ​​solar power plants put into operation in the planned period from 2019 to 2023. This is a cycle worth 750 million kuna. With this power plant, Vis has gained greater security of electricity supply," stated Frane Barbaric, President of the Management Board of Hrvatska elektroprivreda.

Vis experienced a historic moment with the investment in Krizeva glavica, not far from the settlement Zena Glava. He laid the concrete foundations of what will happen in Croatia in the next 10 years. Namely, in 2017, the Government of the Republic of Croatia strongly embarked on the implementation of the new energy policy of Croatia and the European Union, focused on green energy investments.

But the basic question is, why Vis? 

According to one of the projections made and presented by the Hrvoje Pozar Energy Institute less than four years ago, Dalmatia, the coast, and the islands have the greatest solar potential. Among them, the Southern Dalmatian islands stand out. Nevertheless, statistics show that compared to other EU countries, Croatia still does not make sufficient use of this natural potential. But it is encouraging that the EU solar market has grown by 36 percent over the past year. The projections made by the United Nations Development Program show a plan to increase the use of solar energy in Croatia until 2030, said Dr. Luksa Lulic, member of the Supervisory Board of HEP.

Announcements about the planned construction of new solar and wind power plants are quite optimistic, and it is interesting that Split-Dalmatia County will play an extremely important role in this direction. Moreover, precisely because of the abundance of sunshine and beautiful locations, this county is a natural Croatian reservoir for the construction of new renewable energy sources. This is confirmed by the prefect of Split-Dalmatia, Blazenko Boban, who stated that this area will become the flagship of what the EU expects from us.

"Solar power plants are extremely desirable in our area because in the frequent consumption of electricity, so when it is necessary to import energy, we have our own potential. This is especially pronounced at a time of higher influx of tourists in the season, which gives us self-sustainability. Thanks to the Sun Power Plant on Vis and other solar power plant projects under construction, such as SE Vrlika and projects in development such as the Bogomolje power plant on Hvar and others, Split-Dalmatia County will remain a leader in renewable sources in the country. Vis is the leader of this process, it is this most remote island of our county that now has energy self-sufficiency," says Boban.

The projection of the energy future of Split-Dalmatia County is based on the existing spatial plan, in which we are implanting 28 wind farm fields. Nine of them have already been built. There are also 25 solar fields led by Vis. At the other end of our county, says prefect Boban, a power plant of 6.8 megawatts, worth 45 million kuna, is planned in Vrlika, and there is also the Vrgorac area as the third peak of the 'V' triangle.

"These three 'V' plants are located on the outskirts of our county, and within it, construction is still planned at several other positions. We know that it will be on the Sestanovac plateau, for which projects have not been worked out in detail yet. That is why it is still difficult to talk about strength. There is also Bogomolje on Hvar, and Lecevica is also planned. SE Vrlika is moving quickly with the realization, the project is finished, the start of construction is planned by the New Year. We will soon know all the characteristics of the plant from the planned sunny fields of Hvar and from the Vrgorac area. Among the seven planned HEP power plants from the announced five-year cycle, the Hvar SE Bogomolje also found a place. In the medium term, among our acquisitions, among the larger SEs are those from the Vrgorac plateau, Sestanovac, Lecevica, and those from the area of ​​Zadvarje, Kastela and Imotski," says Boban.

His words are supported by the announcements from HEP, from which the leaders openly sent an invitation for cooperation with other islands in the Dalmatian area during their stay on Vis. From the slope of the Vis hill covered with 11,200 photovoltaic modules, they invited Dalmatian leaders to a new open public call, to plan preparations and cooperation in the construction of new solar power plants.

HEP leaders set out in this direction, announcing talks with the leadership of four Hvar municipalities the day after the release of SE Vis. The power plant in Bogomolje, which is about to obtain a location permit, could be joined in the future by 'sister' acquisitions, for example in Jelsa, and at two other locations. Along the way, a lot more will need to be defined on this issue.

HEP's five-year investment cycle for the construction of solar power plants, worth HRK 750 million, combines the construction of the solar power plant Marici near Zminj, Istrian Kastelir 2, and SE Cres as the largest solar power plant under construction in Croatia with 6.5 MW and an investment of HRK 41 million. There is also SE Obrovac, SE Vrlika jug, and SE Stankovci. By the end of 2020, WPP Korlat, the first wind farm in HEP's production portfolio, will also be put into commercial operation.

As far as Vis is concerned, HEP annually invests an average of one million kuna in the improvement of the island's electricity infrastructure. In the next three years, this amount will be almost 30 million kuna through a number of projects. Among them, laying submarine cables at Hvar-Pakleni-Vis and Vis-Bisevo stands out, as well as laying 20-kilovolt cable lines in Ravno Stupisce and Smokova. Also, work has begun on the installation of the first ELEN charging station for electric cars on the island, in the town of Vis, followed by the installation of a charging station in Komiza, said HEP, which will build a new 1500 MW of production capacity by 2030.

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September 20, 2020 - The city of Split has issued a call to restore the former monumental Bajamonti fountain in the city center near Sv. Frane Church.

Slobodna Dalmacija reports that the monument, which is better known to us as Bajamonti, was not called that in its time, and it got its name because of the diligent efforts of the then-mayor Antonio Bajamonti to erect the fountain. The main restoration project should be completed in 60 days, and the estimated value is around 100,000 kuna.

Before submitting an offer, the bidder should inspect the existing documentation, which is available on request at the Split City Museum by e-mailing Marijan Cipcic, the documentation states. For those who do not know, Cipcic is the president of the Cultural Heritage Friends Association and was appointed by Mayor Andro Krstulovic Opara to lead the project.

"The main project needs to be prepared following the existing documentation. After signing the contract, the investor undertakes to submit to the developer the existing documentation according to which the main project is prepared," it is pointed out on the City's website where it is stated that the conservation study was made by Katja Marasovic, academician Nenad Cambj, and Ivana Prijatelj Pavicic, and the detailed design for the restoration of the monumental fountain was made in 1991 by Jerko Marasovic and Marija Marasovic. The one chosen by the City will receive "original photographs of the monumental fountain from the City Museum".

The deadline for submitting bids is short - only eight days, and the project must be completed within two months.

Split kroz Povijest

It is important to point out that Opara's government also gave up on the tender for the fountain design and the arrangement of Franjo Tudjman Square, which was supposed to be conducted in 2016. What will a replica of this monumental fountain look like in the middle of traffic chaos, surrounded by motorcycles, bicycles, taxis, a bus turnaround, and numerous traffic signs?

As Drazen Pejkovic, urban planning advisor to the then-mayor Baldasar said four years ago, the tender was to solve the sculpture of the fountain and the space, to be applicable for various purposes, including occasional events, such as concerts.

"Within all topics related to the urban-architectural tender, defining the fountain's shape is the backbone of the future solution. The author's proposals for the future fountain's typological solution should be connected and harmonized with the organizational, installation, functional, and traffic elements of the solution, which must be following the overall urban ambiance of the Riva" said Pejkovic.

The monumental fountain was of cultural importance because it marked the arrival of public drinking water in Split. It also had the then urban significance for the view of the coast and the visual connection of the Riva with Prokurative (but not a special artistic value). Bajamonti, which was an allegorical monument, was not without political symbolism.

The then-mayor Antonio Bajamonti, a staunch autonomist, who was already an irredentist at the time, ordered the Monumental Fountain in Milan in 1880, in the last year of his (city) term as mayor, when he lost the support of the majority Croatian people. In the same year, dissatisfied with Vienna's introduction of the Croatian language in Split schools, he sent his private militia, the "bersagliere," to the local people who were celebrating.

The sculpture at the top of the fountain, according to the entry about Bajamonti in the Italian encyclopedia "Treccani," represented Dalmatia, and with its left hand pointed to the Danube, reminiscent of the borders of the Roman Empire, with the importance of the former Salona to take Split.

Some of our experts claim that the hand was pointing towards Bosnia as a direction with which Split should be economically connected. However, it did not point to Zagreb because Bajamonti was against Dalmatia's unification with Croatia and Slavonia.

The fasces held in the hand by a young man on top of an allegorical sculpture was taken over from ancient Rome in the 1870s by Italian nationalists and irredentists, after Italy's unification, to emphasize the need to unite all countries they considered their own. There was a tendency to mitigate this symbolism in our country by interpreting it as a matter of unity of citizens.

In 2016, the tender failed because the conservators voted against the restoration of Bajamonti.

According to the document from 2016,  signed by the head Dr. Radoslav Buzancic, Dr. Sandi Bulimbasic, and Dr. Ambroz Tudor, the conservators decided to arrange the location on the site of the former fountain, in height and width but expressed concern that the restoration for which there is no precise documentation would be kitsch.

In this way, they challenged the conclusion previously made by the City Council to make a monument, "which will largely respect the appearance of the old fountain demolished in 1947".

After it was previously unequivocally established that the original fountain could not be restored, this formulation opens the possibility of all kinds of imitations, even the lowest quality, because even the worst imitation will be closer to the competition propositions than, for example, top work, observed in an authorial way, the conservators noted in their assessment, adding that the restoration is being avoided today because it is not an original monument.

Also, conservationists have called for establishing an expert commission to determine the propositions for the tender to avoid poor results. But, this tender, which was planned in Baldasar's time, was not even started, as soon as it was realized that the restoration would continue.

Mayor Andro Krstulovic Opara has thus connected with the Cultural Heritage Friends Association. Then, some claim, to avoid local experts, they sought the opinion of the Croatian Council for Cultural Heritage for a conservation study.

"The conservation study has been completed and sent for expert opinion to the Croatian Council for Cultural Heritage, an advisory body of the Ministry of Culture for performing professional and other tasks in the field of protection and preservation of cultural heritage. After that, my appointment followed," Marijan Cipcic said last year.

If the study, based on which the developer of the main project is requested, does not have the conservator's consent, the insiders claim that it is illegally skipping the Conservation Institute.

The investor can appeal to the second instance within the Ministry of Culture, a higher instance in the Cultural Heritage Administration, against the decision of the regional conservation institute, but cannot skip the entire conservation institution, so within the UNESCO zone work only based on the Croatian Council for Cultural Heritage.

Slobodna Dalmacija asked Cipcic whether they have the consent of the Croatian Council for Cultural Heritage and the conservators.

"The Croatian Council for Cultural Heritage did not discuss the conservation study for the restoration of the Monumental Fountain. When the preparation of the main project for the renovation of the Monument, for which a call for bids was published on the City's website on September 15, is completed, the entire document will be submitted to the competent authorities for further action," said Cipcic.

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September 20, 2020 -  Started by Mirena Bagur, Croatian Premium Wine Imports brings Croatian wines to American addresses. 

Wines from southern Croatia are now on dinner tables in America! 

Namely, Slobodna Dalmacija reports that the American company Croatian Premium Wine Imports, Inc. (CPWI), based in Boston, received a federal license to import Croatian wines to the United States, starting with wines from the Komarna vineyards, wineries Rizman, Terra Madre, and Volarevic, and continuing with wines from Konavle from the local winery Crvik, which completes this seemingly unusual wine story.

CPWI is interested in indigenous wines such as Plavac Mali, Posip, Zinfandel, Tezor, and wineries in the south that produce these red, white, and rosé wines.

At a time of the coronavirus pandemic and great economic uncertainty, beautiful entrepreneurial stories like the one told by the Croatian wine ambassador to the USA, Mirena Bagur, who was born in Metkovic, are worthy of attention and admiration. The Crvik winery from Konavle, which is proud of its centuries-old tradition of wine production, has entered the circle of Croatian wineries whose wines have recently been successfully sold in the United States.

It is an internationally awarded wine Tezoro (silver at Decanter, silver at the International Wine Challenge, gold at Vinistra and Sabatina), which is obtained from the indigenous variety Dubrovnik Malvasia, the first grape variety mentioned in the Dubrovnik archives in the 14th century.

Much credit for this goes to Mirena Bagur, who, together with her husband Win A. Burke, an IT entrepreneur, runs the Croatian Premium Wine Imports company to import and distribute wines in the United States. They started with the wineries of the association K7 from Komarna. They recently agreed to cooperate with Testament near Sibenik, Marlais from Peljesac, and the Crvik winery, as the first Konavle winery.

Thus, through an online shop, which sends wines to most states, you can buy well-known varieties from southern Croatia, such as Plavac Mali, Dingac, Tribidrag, Posip, Babic, Debit, and Dubrovnik Malvasia. In the USA, quality Croatian wines are very well accepted, says Mirena.

"Wine connoisseurs and lovers in America give priority to quality, and all the reviews of quality experts that come to us are excellent. Younger generations want to hear new wine stories from around the world, so there is a whole new category, the so-called adventure wines, and here our wines fit perfectly. We are in constant contact with wine lovers, and we listen to comments, so this year, we are expanding our wine inventory to other Croatian wine regions as well," Mirena said.

Winemaker Petar Crvik says this is a great time to break through into wine production.

"Every year, tourists from all over the world come to our winery. It is often the Americans who ask us if they can get our wine in the United States. I am glad that our efforts and authenticity have been recognized, and I sincerely hope that more Croatian winemakers will start exporting because this is a huge opportunity for our winemaking," says Crvik.

Although Croatia still imports much more wine than it exports, the trends are still hopeful: a few years ago, imports decreased, and production and exports increased. Initiatives like this can definitely help the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, but also the whole of Croatia, find its place on the wine map of the world.

"As you know, we started cooperation with winemakers from Komarna, and since I am from Metkovic, it was relatively easy for us to form a partnership with people we know and have mutual respect. However, from the very beginning, we planned to include wines from all over Croatia. Logically, the first expansion was within the Dubrovnik-Neretva region because last year, we visited wineries in that area," Mirena pointed out.

"Apart from the top quality wines made from indigenous varieties, which is our focus, one of the reasons why we quickly included Crvik and Marlais wineries is that they understand how to satisfy the desires of American wine lovers who come to their tasting rooms. So selling their wines online went very fast. In particular, we have several former visitors to Crvik who contacted us at least once a week during the summer to see if Tezoro had arrived at our online warehouse. I don’t think there’s a better story than that," Mirena says proudly of her wine success.

"The development of online sales has always been planned, but online shopping is quite complicated due to the alcohol law in America. Still, since Win Burke is an expert in software solutions, this was feasible for us in a relatively short time with his experience. We started building an online store in 2019 and started to test sales in early 2020. Just when most restaurants were in the status quo due to the corona crisis, and direct sales in the wine sector more or less stopped, online demand for Croatian wines began, and were delivered to the home addresses of the customers," said Mirena.

"Without investments in the export of Croatian wines by the ministry, chamber, or winegrowing associations, success in the wine sector cannot be expected," concluded Mirena Bagur, who emphasizes that 50 indigenous wine labels from all over Croatia are available in the USA today.

You can read more about Croatian Premium Wine Imports here.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 19th of September, 2020, the story of the Croatian company Nanobit and its two founders, Alan Sumina and Zoran Vucinic, can be ranked among the most successful Croatian stories in the last five years. It started, as is often the case with IT startups - "romantically", without any capital, with only two computers, but with the idea and the will to gain global success in a very competitive industry - the mobile game industry.

The Croatian company Nanobit's founders have been building the company for a full 12 years now and have grown to 125 highly educated employees, their games have been downloaded more than 145 million times in total, and are played by more than 10 million active players worldwide on a monthly basis. And what has crowned their success is an extremely successful sale or, in startup terms, "exit". They sold the company for almost a billion kuna to the Swedish Stillfront group, which has 14 more gaming studios in its portfolio.

Namely, Stillfront, whose headquarters are in Stockholm and which is publicly listed on the Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market, will pay 100 million US dollars in the first tranche for 78 percent of the Croatian company Nanobit's shares, and after two years, they'll buy the rest of Nanobit at a price that will depend on the movement of profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Nanobit in the financial years of 2021 and 2022.

When asked why they decided to sell and not to further their independent development, Alan and Zoran answered for Vecernji list:

''The industry in which we operate is very fierce when it comes to competition and there's a real struggle on the global market. It's currently rapidly consolidating and the choice was to join those who will develop the company or stay alone against everyone.

True, we may have once had the idea that we will be the ones to buy other gaming companies, but we should be realistic considering that it's almost impossible to realise this operationally from Croatia, primarily because there is not enough capital. For such a thing we had to start things up in another country, for example, like our customer, in Sweden. As a Croatian company, even if we were listed on the Swedish stock exchange, we wouldn't get such visibility as we are now when we're a component of a Swedish company. It's much harder to do all this from Croatia because companies need a lot more capital for acquisitions, so we believe that this was the best we could do in the right timeframe, and the situation with the coronavirus crisis also contributed to this move,'' Nanobit's founders say, adding that they didn't just fall for the first offer they got and that they had at least a few bidders every year.

''There were various providers, from those related to this business to those who have nothing in common with Nanobit whatsoever. We chose the Swedish company because we estimated that we'd continue to work and develop with them, have knowledge and cooperation with all their components, or with 14 other gaming studios or specifically with 800 quality employees and experts in this field,'' added the founders of the successful Croatian company Nanobit.

What was almost crucial for them was that the company stays in Croatia and has high autonomy in decision-making, ie that everything stays more or less as it was before, with Nanobit's employees getting the opportunity for personal development that ultimately directly affects the company's results.

''During the negotiations with the Swedes, some new bidders appeared who offered us even more money. However, what our goal was is that the company still exists as it is, that it has its headquarters in Croatia and that its employees are safe and taken care of in the best way with the new owner,'' say Alan and Zoran, who will surely remain at the helm of the Nanobit for another two years and continue to work, although their contract doesn't stipulate that they must remain at the helm of the company.

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As Novac/Vedran Marjanovic writes on the 19th of September, 2020, Croatian insurers have so far paid out for 6,255 claims for earthquake insurance policies in the total amount of 194 million kuna, the leaders of the Croatian Insurance Bureau announced. They state, however, that they're still receiving requests from people due to Zagreb earthquake damage.

''Although we're still receiving requests for Zagreb earthquake damage assessments and part of the requests are still being processed, the amount of damages paid out so far, when looking at the total amount of Zagreb earthquake damage in the city and its surroundings, things clearly indicate that we as a society are significantly uninsured or at least underinsured,'' said a member of the Management Board of Croatia osiguranje, Vanco Balen.

Stating that the average premium for earthquake insurance stands at around 800 kuna, Balen stated that the average damage amount paid out for this year was more than 30,000 kuna, concluding that the damage was, in many cases, far higher than the annual average premiums amount to.

The Croatian Insurance Bureau estimates that insurers will pay out a total of 400 million kuna to 500 million kuna in damages in connection with the earthquake which struck Zagreb and its surroundings back in March this year. They note that general global experience shows that the deadline for payment for earthquake damage is about two years.

Balen warned that the March earthquake in Zagreb was not a solitary natural disaster, that floods and storms were frequent, concluding that ''insurance is a civilizational response to situations such as natural disasters''.

''If we know that the previous earthquake recorded with the same strength as the one in Zagreb back in March this year took place 140 years ago, we can say that we can be calm for the next 140 years. But is that so? I'd like to remind you of the statement of Professor Snjezana Markusic that the fact that we had a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in March indicates an increased possibility of a new earthquake, perhaps even one of a stronger magnitude,'' warned Slaven Dobric, a Member of the Management Board of Allianz osiguranje and President of the Croatian Insurance Bureau.

In the years preceding this year's earthquake, the total premium of Croatian insurers in earthquake insurance was about 80 million kuna. Insurers expect that this year the aforementioned premium will reach 110 million kuna.

''On the day of the earthquake alone, we had many more insurance policies agreed online for earthquakes than we  usually do, which speaks of the growing awareness of citizens about the importance of this policy. But raising that awareness must be further accelerated through the strengthening of financial literacy and the like,'' commented Vanco Balen.

The President of the Management Board of Euroherc osiguranje, Ivana Bratanic, pointed out the comparison of the average insurance premium per capita in the European Union of 2,170 euros with the same Croatian indicator of only 347 euros.

''If we increase the level of awareness about the necessity of investing in insurance, we'll also reduce the financial burden of the state in repairing damages,'' warned Ivana Bratanic when discussing the Zagreb earthquake damage payments.

As an additional lever for the more effective protection of property from earthquakes, insurers suggest contracting insurance policies for common areas in residential buildings, which, they say, were generally not contracted in buildings in the centre of Zagreb, which were hit hard by the earthquake which rocked the city back in spring.

Insurers welcomed the recently passed Law on the Reconstruction of Buildings Damaged by the Earthquake in Zagreb and its Surroundings, because, as Slaven Dobric pointed out, citizens who had adequate insurance coverage will have a reduced financial burden during the reconstruction.

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